Phrasee, a London-based marketing software company using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to boost email response rates, today announced it has raised a total of £1 million in seed capital to help scale its operations.

Led by global digital communications business Next Fifteen (Next 15) and angel syndicate Galvanise Capital, who will each be taking a minority stake in the company, the funding will be used for research and development purposes, and to expand the reach of Phrasee’s scientific approach to email marketing in both the UK and US MarTech markets.

Based on a proprietary AI algorithm, Phrasee, which was recently named among the top MarTech startups in the UK by TechWorld, offers progressively optimised email subject lines and other types of language that outperform human-generated attempts in attracting the reader’s attention. The company was founded in early 2015 by Parry Malm, Dr. Neil Yager and Victoria Peppiatt, world-leading experts in the integration of digital marketing and data science.

Phrasee founders Parry Malm, Victoria Peppiatt & Dr Neil Yager (L-R)

“We founded Phrasee with the goal of creating a scientifically-based way of encouraging people to open emails, boosting response rates and subsequently generating greater revenue for the sender. Having been able to demonstrate the efficacy of our approach and demand for our product in our first year of operation, we are greatly encouraged by the support of Next 15 and Galvanise in taking the business to its next stage of growth,” said Phrasee CEO Parry Malm.

“Our cloud-based software-as-a-service generates trillions of brand-compliant, human-sounding language variants, and uses iterative experimental methodology to grab more attention in a crowded inbox. To date, Phrasee-generated language has beaten humans more than 90 percent of the time.

Tim Dyson, CEO of Next 15, said: “As digital marketing becomes increasingly specialised and technology-driven, AI offers an advantage to businesses that embrace its potential to optimise performance. Phrasee has developed a truly unique proposition with wide appeal in the marketing industry, making the company a significant growth prospect.

“Our business is dedicated to supporting and developing innovative companies exploring new opportunities in fusing data science and technology. Phrasee matches our strategic focus perfectly and offers an exciting venture for us to partner in. Through our funding and access to valuable networks, we will help Phrasee to increase its UK client base and assist the company in raising its profile in the US market.”

The funding marks the first major investment in the UK marketing technology market following the recent EU Referendum, demonstrating the resilience of high growth MarTech businesses in current market conditions.

“We still see cause for great optimism in the UK marketing tech market and will continue to invest in its future,” Dyson added.

Devina Paul, who is also a non-executive director of Phrasee and a Partner at Galvanise Capital, said: “Phrasee promises to be a true London success story. Founded by three of the world’s leading authorities on AI and digital marketing, they have built a startup that has grown tremendously in little over a year. As demand for AI-based marketing products grows, we firmly believe that Phrasee will be on the crest of this wave on a global scale.”

About Phrasee:

Phrasee uses artificial intelligence to generate marketing language that out-performs humans. It uses advanced language technologies to quantify, generate and optimise email subject lines, and other language types, that increase opens, clicks and conversions. Phrasee is based in London, and also has an office in Vancouver, Canada.

About Next 15:

Next 15 is a digital communications business which employs over 1,350 people across 36 offices in 15 countries. The Group incorporates 17 subsidiary agencies, spanning digital content, marketing, PR, consumer, technology, marketing software, market research, public affairs and policy communications.

About Galvanise Capital:

Galvanise Capital provides stimulating growth and go to market solutions for early stage businesses, and unique opportunities for early stage tech investors. Their portfolio includes high-growth MarTech businesses including Phrasee, Appsumer, Whichit, and Adimo.